The Thrill of Touring Car Racing

I know I'm a lucky bloke. 

I get to seeing races live on track, and some of them are epic. I have seen Andy Priaulx win in Monza after both Rob Huff and Gabriele Tarquini had a last-lap puncture in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, I have witnessed the fantastic three-way fight between Audi drivers Tomas Kostka, Davide Stancheris and Ermanno Dionisio in Vallelunga for the EUROV8 Series and, more recently, the incredibly spectacular pair of races held in Monza in the TCR International Series.

Andy Priaulx in Marrakech in 2009

So what is it that makes touring car racing so exciting? The answer is not as easy as it would seem.

Of course touring car racing is about contact. That is the difference between single seaters and tin-tops, so you get to seeing people rubbing and scratching each other, having rows and still continuing the battle, until the very last yard.

There is more than meets the eye, however. Actually, it is very visible and quite obvious. Aerodynamics are a very charming way to get grip and make cars go fast, but is that what a fan wants to see?

I'll be honest. I do not care about the speed of the cars. Of course, having driven an 80 Bhp Citroën C1 Cup, I know the value of horsepower. Top speed is nothing, though. Spectators - and drivers - enjoy the fights, and that happens when there is a crucial element: balance.

Balancing different cars is very difficult, it's not easy to make that happen. In Monza, last weekend, Honda were dominant - in the hands of Gianni Morbidelli - and SEAT drivers and teams complained about it all weekend long. Three weeks earlier, though, Honda did the same in Valencia, complaining about being too slow compared to the Spanish cars. However, we were never shy of battles.

In this frame, I couldn't care less about the lap time of a car, as long as it's close enough to its rival. It's been a long time since I had seen three different brands on the podium, and that was far more important than seeing the limit of the cars themselves in terms of sheer performance.

"Pechito" Lòpez at Marrakech in the wonderful C-Elysée WTCC

TC1 cars, as well as TCRs, all look very aggressive, racey and sound great. The rest is just up to the teams. When the red lights go out, all that matters is the battle, and that is what touring car racing is about.

Last Sunday the Monaco Grand Prix was on, the start of the race was set at almost the same time as the TCR Race 2. 20 minutes of great fun vs 90 minutes of technical jewels turned into boring racing cars.

I am not saying Formula One is not exciting. I love the hybrid concept, I do not understand the fuss about the rising costs as manufacturers are lucky enough not to worry about them, and the real problem is the economy, which isn't willing to spend money in motorsports anymore after the credit crunch. The world has changed in 2008 and we have to deal with it.

The problem is that the more things are complicated, the less people enjoy them. That is a sentence the big heads should always keep in mind when considering changes.

The symbol of the new-generation F1 cars

F1 means nothing without top technology, so what we do not fully understand today will be what we drive every day in just a few years. Touring car racing means nothing with top technology, I want to see something I can buy at a dealer next to the track on Monday. Win races on Sunday, sell cars on Monday.

The show comes from there. The more you keep it simple, the more the driver input has an influence. That's how you get a youngster like Stefano Comini fighting with a veteran such as Gianni Morbidelli, with Pepe Oriola also around. That's how you get so excited you forget to call your family because you are too busy working, trying to tell the tale of two epic races.

The spectacular three-way fight between Morbidelli, Comini and Monje

That is how you fall in love with touring cars!